I just drove Andy and Leon to the airport and they are on their way back to Toronto. I realy enjoy spending the past few days with old friends. I found that if someone visit you and staying in your place, not only they are having a vacation, you are also having a vacation at the same time with them. My normal daily routine is changed, instead I have having being a tourist in my own city. It is surprising that there are many things I havn’t seen even I have been living here for 5 years. In this vacation, we went to Whislter two times, and mindlessly tour the city for the other two days. When old friends get together, it is natural to talk about the old days. Old memories tends to clash with each other, somehow my version of what had happened is quite different from others. Me and Leon spent lots of time arguing what really had happened back then, as well as almost every single issues ranging from which LCD monitor is better to renewable energy technology. Both of us enjoy arguing itself, regardless the topic involved nor the outcoming, since most of the time is inconclusive. Now, my life is getting back to normal until my next vacation.

Today I went to Whislter again with my friends from Toronto and Pat. I am not very tired today, since I stay with Pat all the time on the green runs. Pat has kept up with her snowboarding skill, she is doing pretty good on wide green runs, even blue runs. Her biggest problem is on narrow green runs which connect different parts of the mountain. She is scared to made turn on the narrow run, afraid she will fall off to the cliff. It is very tried and hard to control if not changing edge from time to time. I think Pat has the skills already, just she havn’t overcome her fear. The only way to work on this problem is by taking snowboarding lessons. I can’t convince her to try turning even I can demostrate it is safe to make turns on those narrow runs. There is some woman only snowboard clinic in Whislter in Febuary, maybe I should sign her up in one of those sessions. I need to take skiing lessons myself too, I have reached the plateau of just practising by myself. It is time for me to reconsider taking CSIA level 1 again, but I need some professional opinions from ski instructors on my chance of succeed first.

Today I showed my friends around the town by sky train, since I don’t want to drive between two days going to Whislter. One of them had visited Vancouver many years ago, he really missed the osyter in Lansdale Quay, so we went there for lunch. Fortunately the osyter shop is still around and he had a dozen of fresh osyters, almost clean all the osysters in the shop. Then we tried something I had never done before, took a bus going to Vancouver downtown thru the Lions gate bridge. Then, there is a standard vancouver download tour start with Mondo Gelato, then walk along the English Bay. The guy also missed the steam clock in gas town, so I have to take him there fore photos. I don’t really understand what’s so interesting about the steam clock, especially when it is broken at the moment. We had dinner at Guu, and I am surprise they never had izakaya in Toronto. After dinner, we ran out of things to do and end up going to Metrotown. Then we have to call it a day, since we all need a good rest preparing for the 2nd visit to Whistler tomorrow.

Two of my Waterloo buddies visited me this christmas holidays. To be exact, they come over to have a ski trip in Whislter and crash in my place. I havn’t seen them for years, we used to live very close to each other in Mississauga. Together with another Waterloo friend visiting his girlfriend in Vancouver, four of us drove off to Whislter to have our first ski this season. The snow condition is not very great, it is too foggy up in the top, and worse there is no enough snow, we cannot ski all the way down to the village. I keep hearing praise about Whistler from my buddies comparing it to the ski resorts back east. I guess I quite spoiled by Whislter and take it for granted. This year, I found my skill has improved comparing to last season, my balance and movement is getting better. On our way to and from Whislter, my friends keep telling me stroies about their jobs in ATI. Now, I realise PMC is not very bad after all, there is some other company has much worse practise.

This christmas, I have a warm house gathering with my mom, my two aunties and my cousins. My thin auntie has prepared a very delicious dinner together with my mom. After dinner, we just hang around waiting for the dessert, watched TV and sing old songs karaoke. The night is quite relaxing, me and Pat enjoy the good food including abalone, bordeaux red wine and sallow nest. My only complain is there is a small dog I allergic to at thin auntie’s plase. I tried to get dog stay away from me for the whole night. At the end I still have some mild rash on my face. I hope after taking some medication, it will disappear tomorrow morning. I am fine with big dogs, like Pat’s golden retriver, but I don’t like small dogs. Not only they will cause allergy to me, they are so annoying. Whenever I see a small dog, I am so tempted to kick it. It just looks like a fur ball ask to be kicked right at the stomach.